“I take it you heard me coming,” a familiar voice said.
“Oh, no freaking way,” Cadence said in a mutter as both she and Aiden moved closer to the door as the security for the evening stepped in the door.
“I just wanted to introduce myself to you before you all begin your evening. I’m Detective Andy Halleran.” He extended a hand to Teeny, and she took it and shook it with a smile of evident interest in this person in front of her.
“Detective,” Aiden said as he approached them. “How are you doing, it’s been a little while.”
Andy blinked in surprise. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said, shaking Aiden’s hand. “I’m doing well, thanks. How is… How is everyone else doing?”
“Everyone’s good, thanks,” Aiden said with a knowing nod to Andy.
“I didn’t realize you two would know each other,” Liam said.
“He and his group worked as consultants on a case a month or two back,” Andy said with a shrug, not wanting to go into detail. “As I understand it, I’m simply going to be stationed outside in my car, making sure your investigation here isn’t disturbed, correct?”
“Yeah, here,” Liam said as he tossed a walkie-talkie to Andy, who caught it as if it had been a thrown football. “We’ll be on channel 2. Radio us if you see anything weird, we’ll radio you if we need help, but that’s just a precaution.”
Andy nodded, turning the radio on and making sure it was tuned to the right channel. “Sounds good. I’ll keep an ear out for you.”
“Thank you, Detective,” Teeny said with a smile and a sparkle in her eye.
Andy chuckled lightly and nodded to her before turning and heading back out. Aiden closed the door behind him.
“Is he single?” Teeny asked as soon as the latch to the door clicked home.
“Are you kidding me?” Liam’s voice was filled with indignation. “We’re filming The Dead Show, not The Bachelorette, Teeny. Get your head together.” His personality seemed to turn on a dime at Teeny’s interest in Detective Halleran.
“Says the guy who has been using his pseudo-celebrity status to chase anything with a vagina that would pay attention,” Teeny said, her tone a little too sharp.
“Hey,” Aiden said in a stern voice. “You two want to argue about hookups do it on your own time. It’s obvious that you two have some issues to work on, but this is not the time or place to do it. We need to get moving with this investigation.”
Both of them looked at Aiden and nodded in turn. There was still anger and resentment visible on their faces and tension in the air, but Aiden was glad he had been able to keep the argument from devolving. The atmosphere at the prison was rife with tension and anger, which seemed to make everyone a little more hot-headed than they were normally.
“You’re right,” Teeny said after a moment of mentally pulling herself back together. “I want to be back here at 11:30 so we can move the box and get it all set up in time for its midnight trial. Until then, let’s go explore a little.” She gave a smile, and it was evident that the smile was tight; faked enthusiasm for the cameras and the two with her.
“Jesus, Snow. If they keep going like that, one of them is going to murder the other by the time this is over with.” Cadence looked over at her partner, her jade eyes are solemn and concerned.
“I worry about that as well. At least, in this case, Aiden’s cooler head prevailed. However, as we saw the other day, that may not be something we can always count on. And where in the bloody hell is Mr. Pruitt?”
“Been in the back tryin’ to see if I can get some of these nimrods to behave,” Roy said as he materialized beside Cadence and Snow. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but I figured that was more important.”
Snow nodded, accepting Pruitt’s excuse, but Cade could read Snow’s face and body language. Even he was sensing something off about the former prison guard.
“They keep you so busy back there that you can’t even answer your phone?” Cadence wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily.
“Sometimes they do, yeah. They’re criminals, missy. It’s not like they’re known fer bein’ well behaved,” Roy said with a shrug, not letting the doubts of Cadence bother him.
“Okay,” Liam said with a smile as he rubbed his hands together, his tiff with Teeny out of his mind for now in lieu of the excitement of the investigation. “Ready to get this started?”
“Ready,” Teeny said, her own smile now genuine, as was her enthusiasm.
“Ready,” Aiden replied. Although he was far more serious and less enthusiastic than the other two.
“Let’s get this show started!” Liam led the way out of the lobby and into the prison proper, followed by Teeny, with Aiden bringing up the rear. The three ghosts followed the three breathers into the dark halls of Barrington Prison.
Chapter 15
Sam couldn’t help but smile at the little girl who came in with her Father and Derrick. She looked so adorable. There was a small pang of hurt in knowing that he had missed out on the opportunity to have a family, through no fault or decision of his own. But that only redoubled his desire to help this family out and make sure that the little girl here would be kept safe.
Lauren had finished asking Robin about the attack for the record, so the camera had been recording their conversation as they chatted. Both women, from their seats on the couch, looked up, and smiled as the trio entered the room.
“Hey Jellybean, come here,” Robin said, opening her arms to her daughter. Ava ran across the room and happily launched herself into her Mother’s arms and lap. Robin hugged her close and then loosened her grip a little as Doug took a seat and Derrick took up position behind the camera.
“Lauren, I would like you to meet my daughter, Ava,” Robin said. She then leaned down to speak in Ava’s ear. “Jellybean, this is Miss Lauren. She’s come to help us out with Emma’s tempern tantrums.”
Ava looked at Lauren for a moment with eyes that betrayed an old soul. “How are you going to help? Are you going to hurt them?”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to try to get Emma and Sarah to rest peacefully, so they can be where they should be,” Lauren explained.
“Emma said this is where she is supposed to be. That her home was here a long time ago. She says we have no right to be here but since I’m her friend she’ll let us stay, but only if I am nice to her and am her friend,” Ava said.
“That doesn’t sound like a friendly thing to say to someone, does it?” Lauren asked.
Ava shrugged from her Mother’s lap at first but then shook her head from side to side in slow motion.
“Does she scare you?” Lauren leaned over towards the girl, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
Ava nodded. “Especially when she has fits like after the fair or today with Mommy.”
“Would you like me to help put her to rest? I won’t hurt her, I swear,” Lauren said.
Ava nodded again. “Yeah… if you can. I’m tired of being scared.”
“Oh sweetie, you should never be scared in your own home,” Lauren said. “We’ll see what we can do to fix it. But I have to talk to you a little and ask you some questions first, okay?”
“Okay,” Ava said, giving another nod.
Lauren nodded back. “When did you first meet Emma?”
“I guess…a month ago,” Ava answered. “We were on break from school for Christmas.” The little girl’s brown eyes glittered with happiness at the mention of Christmas. “I was outside playing in the snow, and she was just suddenly there on the swing set. Sarah was there too, but she didn’t want to play. She’s always so sad.”
“Did you know that they were ghosts, or did you think they were living, breathing little girls?”
“I thought maybe they were living, just playing dress up or something. I like to play dress up, too. I have all kinds of princess gowns and fairy wings, and―“
She was stopped by a playful poke in the belly by her Mother. “Jellybean, Miss Lauren is
n’t here to hear about your costumes, sweetie.”
“Oh,” Ava said. “Anyways I thought she was real until she walked through the closed back door without opening it. Mom had said it was time to come in for dinner, but Emma didn’t want me to go.”
“Did she say anything to you that time? Anything scary or threatening?”
“No, she just didn’t understand. She said where she was from the kids and parents didn’t eat together except maybe for Sunday dinner. She said we were interesting,” Ava said.
“And Sarah, how did you meet her?”
“Well, Emma told me her name, but she didn’t talk to me herself for another week. She likes my dollhouse, and one time when Emma was away, Sarah stayed to play with it. We had fun. She really likes all the lights in it. They only had candle lights she told me.”
“If Sarah seems so sad being around Emma, why does she stay with her?” Lauren had already assumed why, but she wanted to hear how Ava would phrase it.
“Emma says Sarah belongs to her and has to do what she says. That was the first time I thought Emma might not be so nice because that’s not how nice people talk. People don’t own other people. And acting bossy like that isn’t very nice. When I told that to Emma, she got real mad at me and said she would break my dollhouse if I didn’t take it back.”
“What did you do when she said that?” Lauren was trying hard not to just hug the poor little girl. She remembered how frightening and confusing being so young with these gifts was.
“I took it back,” Ava said in a small voice with a shrug. “I didn’t want her to break my dollhouse.”
A crash sounded from the next room, loud and metallic. Everyone in the family jumped. Derrick grabbed the camera off the tripod and ran into the kitchen where he stopped short. There had been a ceiling mounted pot and pan hanger, and it had fallen, along with everything it had been holding, to the kitchen floor. Footsteps sounded right behind him as no one had been slow in following him to find out what had happened.
“How on earth…” Doug said, trailing off.
“Emma,” Ava whispered.
“Emma,” Sam said. He could see the little girl in her blue dress and white apron, her dark blue eyes glaring at them from across the sea of fallen pots and pans. Small hands clenched into fists were held tight to her hips, and her lips were pressed tight together.
“I don’t want you or your people here,” Emma said to Sam.
“It’s not about what you want, Emma,” Sam said, his voice calm but authoritative.
“It is so,” she said with an impatient stamp of her foot. “It’s my house, my land, and I get to say who can come and go.”
“I’m fairly sure that even when you were alive, it was your parents who got to say such things. Just because you are dead doesn’t mean you have that right now,” Sam said as Robin and Doug set about picking up the pots and pans.
“It’s my family’s land,” Emma said, her southern twang thick.
“Your family sold this land. Your Grandfather grieved the loss of you and your parents so much that he sold the land off. It hasn’t been in your family for many years now,” Sam said.
Lauren was standing still on the threshold between the family room and the kitchen. She was aware of Emma’s presence, and though she couldn’t see or hear either of them, she was aware on some level that Sam was communicating with her.
Derrick was nearby, almost on a swivel as he moved between filming the couple picking up their pots and pans, and Lauren. He had no idea what was up, other than she was sensing something, but he didn’t want to voice that knowledge. He didn’t want to instill anymore fear into this family than they already were suffering.
Ava had stayed behind with Lauren while her Mom and Dad cleaned up the mess that Emma had made. She remained silent for a time as she thought about something and then tugged on Lauren’s sleeve.
Lauren was pulled from her concentration by that tug and looked down to Ava. “What, honey?”
“Is he one of your friends too?” The little girl pointed over towards seemingly nothing as she asked this.
Lauren looked where she was pointing and came to a realization as she saw no one there. “Who?”
“The man with the yellow hair who’s talking to Emma,” Ava said.
“You can see him?”
Ava nodded in response to Lauren’s question.
“You have a very rare talent,” Lauren said. “Which might explain a few things.”
Chapter 16
The lobby of the prison let out through a now-defunct security checkpoint. Past the door was a large tile atrium. There were doors off of the atrium for administration offices and for the prison clinic. To their left was a locked heavy door made of iron bars that went to cell block A which had been considered general population. To their right was a similar door that led to cell block B. Cell block B was comprised of death row and solitary confinement. Directly in front of them was yet another door of iron bars guarding a shorter hallway. That hallway held the kitchen, cafeteria, showers, and rec room. A set of double doors at the end of that hallway led out to the yard and the gallows building as well as the laundry building.
Their footsteps echoed against the cinderblock walls as Liam, Teeny, and Aiden walked down the concrete hall of cellblock A with only their night vision cameras guiding the way. Snow and Cadence followed along with them, Roy Pruitt in tow. The living swung their cameras to and fro, peering into cells as if they expected to find some long lost prisoner still alive in his cell just waiting to be found. The residual spirits, mere recordings of the people they once were, moving in loops, went unseen as they paced their cells, slept on beds that had long ago had the mattresses removed from the frames, or stood by the bars, waiting for something. All of them were unseen by the three breathers as they recorded.
“I thought there would be more spirits here,” Cadence said, her voice quiet.
“Ain’t like walls stop ‘em anymore, missy,” Roy said. “They move ‘round the prison as they see fit now. Could be anywhere ‘round here, really.”
“As a monitor, I would have thought you would have a general idea of where they were,” Snow said, his voice also quiet, though Cadence caught a hint of disapproval in his tone.
“Eh, they’re prolly all in the cafeteria,” Roy said with a dismissive shrug.
“Where the riot happened that killed you?” Cadence saw Roy stiffen as she said that.
“Yes,” he replied, his voice terse and curt.
“Sorry,” she said after Snow gave her a pointed look. Do not taunt an unhappy, not-fun-ball monitor. She received the message loud and clear without Snow having to say a word.
“Let’s set up the camera here,” Liam said as they came to a stop mid-way down the corridor.
“Swivel one, right?” Teeny stopped and put down the backpack she had been carrying.
“You got it,” Liam said as he looked around. It was dark, but they could make out the cells on the two floors in the dim light of their flashlights. “Seems too quiet.”
“Maybe they are just drawing on energy, biding their time. It’s early yet,” Teeny said as Aiden helped her secure the camera onto the tripod they had rigged with a swivel.
“Still, this hardly seems worth all of the hand wringing and doomsaying that Aiden and his friends were doing yesterday,” Liam said.
“I can hear you,” Aiden said with a glower towards Liam.
“I know,” Liam said, dismissing whatever offense he might have given with his words. He didn’t really care if he had offended Aiden or hurt his feelings. So far this place was a dud, and duds didn’t make for good television.
“The most Dan and I got here were footsteps and the sound of cell doors closing,” Aiden said, speaking to Teeny only as if Liam weren’t there at all.
“Well, here’s hoping —“ Cadence began, but Snow cut her off.
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, young lady,” Snow said, knowing exactly what she was going to say. “
You’ll only end up inviting more trouble down onto all of us.”
“Come on! Are you guys sleeping or what?” Liam’s yelling echoed back, reverberating through the cell block. “Make a noise. Touch one of us. I thought you were big bad criminals. Are you too afraid of us to make a noise?”
“Dude, that’s a bad idea,” Aiden said in an attempt to get Liam to stop taunting the spirits.
“Is that guy serious?” Roy asked, turning to Snow and Cadence.
“I would love to say no, but I think he is,” Cadence said.
“If he gets the spirits left here riled up, they’ll do more’n touch him,” Roy said with a frown. “And then do worse to that little girl that’s with him.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Cadence said with a sigh.
Before Snow could ask her what she meant, Cadence had teleported to the second floor of cells. She disappeared into one and then came out, cradling something in her hands. She was using a little energy to carry whatever it was, Snow could tell that much. She flung her hands out, and pebbles and small stones rained down, clattering to the floor. One hit Liam on the shoulder, but none went near Teeny or Aiden unless they happened to bounce that way after hitting the floor. Cadence then rejoined Snow and Roy. The former looked more bemused than anything, while the latter looked unimpressed and a little annoyed.
“I guess someone wants you to pipe down,” Teeny said with a laugh.
“One of those rocks hit me,” Liam said, a slight whine in his voice.
“Well, you got what you asked for, man,” Aiden said, trying hard not to laugh along with Teeny. He couldn’t hide the slight smile, however.
“That should hopefully appease him,” Snow said. “However, you needn’t have hit him with one of the stones.”
“I swear I didn’t aim, I just tossed,” Cade said. “One of them hitting him was pure, joyful luck.” She gave Snow one of her practiced innocent smiles, and Snow knew there was zero innocence behind it.
“You, my dear, are incorrigible,” Snow said.
“And you wouldn’t have it any other way,” Cade said, smiling.
The Dead Show Page 10
